InstaLIFE // Sunday 11th January 2015

January 11, 2015

First InstaLIFEpost of 2015 woo! This one looks at the last few weeks so includes a few Christmas frollicks too (can you believe Christmas was only a couple of weeks ago?!) This post includes reindeer, cats, lovely walks, boring theatre and incredible cinema!Let’s get on with it shall we?!

Crackers are one of my favourite things about Christmas lunch and I adored the cute illustrated ones my mum bought this year. They finished off the rest of the red and white theme of this year’s table perfectly.

Christmas Day selfie! My mum bought my dad and boyfriend Christmas jumpers this year so we’d all have one to wear (they’d been resisting owning one for far too long!) My boyfriend actually really liked his and kept it on all day- success!

We had a really wonderful Christmas, catching up with friends and family, and of course eating far too much delicious food! Tony and I decided to spend our days off work between Christmas and New Year going on several walks to get out and about and try and counter balance some of the sitting around and stuffing our faces! The first walk we went on was to Knole Park in Kent, which is a National Trust house and deer park. It was a really bright and crisp day – just perfect for a bit of deer spotting! We spied this huge stag just chilling out and imagined Rudolph and co were doing just the same thing after another busy Christmas!

Another of our walks was a bit closer to home – strolling across Hampstead Heath. This is one of my favourite things to do in London and with a few friends we chatted and swapped Christmas stories as we walked to the top of Parliament Hill to enjoy the view across the city. Again it was a beautifully clear day and we could see for miles around. We headed across the Heath and had a pub lunch at The Spaniards Inn before heading back home for board games galore. Perfect!

I got a very exciting post-Christmas present in the mail – this gorgeous Create Your Own Lip Balms Kit* fromBeauty Kitchen. I namedBeauty Kitcheninmy 2014 favourites last week so as you can tell, I’m a big fan of the brand and their products, and can’t wait to give this set a go! Lip balms are one of my biggest beauty weaknesses and it will be so fun to make my own. Of course I’ll be sharing how I get on here, so keep your eyes peeled 😀

Another lovely present I received was a couple of cinema tickets* from Vue Cinemasthanks guys! My boyfriend and I are huge film fans and were so grateful to be treated to a couple of free tickets which we used as a “last date before going back to work” treat. We headed over to Westfield and had a little wander around the Christmas sales and then for dinner at one of our faves, Wagamama (mmm yaki soba!) We then finished off the evening going to see Benedict Cumberbatch’s latest film The Imitation Gameand it was literally one of the best films I’ve ever seen! I even told Tony I thought it might even be my 2015 Favourite Film (a pretty bold claim for 3 days into the year!) The acting was all amazing (even from Keira Knightly who I usually find a bit wooden) and the storyline really gripping, particularly as it is based on a true story. It focuses on Alan Turing’s quest to break Enigma, the German communications code machine used to pass cryptic messages during World War II, and his struggles with being homosexual in a time when it was still illegal in Britain. It was so interesting as I knew little about this before the film, and was also extremely funny and heartwarming at times. It was such a lovely treat to mark the end of our two weeks off work and the Vueat Westfield was a really nice cinema, which we’d not been to before. I definitely recommend catching The Imitation Game before it leaves the big screen!

Is there anything better than writing in a fresh new diary?! My boyfriend always buys me my favourite pocket Moleskineevery year for Christmas and I really look forward to filling in all my important dates and details each year. I also finally managed to get my hands on the Olaf pyjama leggings from Primark I’d been lusting after for months! I hada lovely evening this week curled up on the sofa in my pj’s watchingPretty Little Liars (#obsessed!!) and writing in all my friends and family’s birthdays. Ah it’s the little things in life eh?!

On Wednesday I went to the theatre to see Catswith Nicole Scherzingeras Grizabella. My parents took me to see Catswhen I was 10 and I remember being really wowed by the dancing, songs and costumes but I have to say, going to see it again I found it all a bit boring!I prefer my theatre to have a bit more of a storyline and nothing much really happens in Cats! Scherzy sung absolutely amazingly though – she has such a beautiful and powerful voice (and I haven’t been able to get Memoriesout my head since!)

This weekend I went back to my parents house for lunch and we ended up having a delicious baked CamembertYUM! My mum stuffed it full of garlic cloves and sprinkled plenty of fresh thyme over the top and it really was so scrumptious! We had it with lots of crusty ciabatta dipped in and accompanied with olives and charcuterie – so good! You can always rely on Mamma Sue to put on a good spread!

So that’s what I’ve been up to! I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year period and the first week back to reality hasn’t been too painful!

I think I’m going to experiment with how often I write these InstaLIFE posts, and may well continue doing them every fortnight than every week, or even do a monthly round up instead. Let me know how often you’d like to see them below 😀